熟能生巧

During the Northern Song Dynasty, there was a skilled archer¹. One day he drew a big crowd while he was practicing on the drill ground（操场，练兵场）. He shot so accurately² that the on-lookers cheered with excitement. He became very proud of his skill. But among the crowd an old oil peddler（小贩） only nodded his head indifferently（冷淡地）. This hurt his Pride.

 

"Can you do this?" he asked the old oil peddler.

 

"No, I can't."

 

"What do you think of my skill?"

 

"Just OK, but nothing special. You've gained your accuracy from persistent³ practice. That's all."

 

"What can you do, then?"

 

The old man said nothing. He put a gourd⁴ bottle on the ground and covered its mouth with a copper⁵ coin. He then scooped⁶ out a ladle（长柄勺） of oil from his big jar, held it high and began to fill the bottle. Now, a thread of oil came down from the ladle into the bottle just through the hole of the coin. Everybody looking on watched with amazement⁷. But the old man said, "This is nothing special, I can do this because I have practiced it a lot." And with these words, he left.

 

Later, people use this phrase to mean "Practice makes perfect".

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